IGCSE History

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• Introduction to IGCSE
• The Road to Affluence: USA 1917 - 1941 (A9)
  • 1917 - 1929
    • The impact of the First World War
    • Immigration
    • Henry Ford and mass production
    • Farming in the 1920s
    • The Stock Market Boom
  • 1929 - 1941
    • The Wall Street Crash
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    • Reactions to the New Deal
• International Relations 1919-1939 (A8)
  • Collective Security
    • The Versailles Settlement
    • The Foundation of the League of Nations
    • Strengths and weaknesses of the League of Nations
    • Successes and failures of the League of Nations
    • Locarno and the Kellogg-Briand Pact
  • Appeasement
    • Manchuria
    • The Disarmament Conference
    • Abyssinia
    • Hitler and the League
    • Appeasement in action
• Revolution in China 1949 - 1996 (A14)
  • 1949 - 1976
    • China under Mao
    • Reform under Liu and Deng
    • The reasons for the Cultural Revolution
    • The impact of the Cultural Revolution
    • China 1971 - 1976
  • 1976 - 1996
    • The defeat of the Gang of Four
    • China under Deng Xiaoping
    • Reforms of the economy
    • The Democracy Movement
    • China in the 1990s
• South-East Asia 1945 - 1900 (A15)
  • Indo-China
    • The end of the French Empire
    • Vietnam 1954 - 1965
    • US involvement in Vietnam
    • The unification of Vietnam
    • Laos and Cambodia
  • South-East Asia
    • The struggle for control of Malaya
    • The creation of Malaysia
    • Singapore
    • Suharto and Indonesia
    • Sukarno and Pancasila
• Conflict and Crisis is the Middle East 1946 - 1996 (A16)
  • Unit overview
  • 1946 - 1967
    • The creation of Israel
    • The impact of the war of 1948 - 1949
    • The Suez Crisis
    • Superpower involvement in the Middle East
    • The Six Day War
  • 1967 - 1996
    • International terrorism
    • The war of Yom Kippur
    • The Palestinian Liberation Organisation
    • Lebanon and the occupied territories
    • Successes and failures from Camp David to Oslo
• The First World War (B4)
  • The Schlieffen Plan
  • Deadlock on the Western Front
  • Gallipoli
  • The Somme and Passchendaele
  • The War at Sea
  • The defeat of Germany
• The USA 1917-1929 (B7)
  • The Roaring Twenties
  • Advertising and consumerism
  • New forms of entertainment
  • Prohibition
  • Gangsterism
  • Hollywood
• China under Mao Zedong 1949 - 1959 (B10)
  • The creation of the Communist State
  • Land Reform
  • Communist society
  • The First Five Year Pan
  • The 100 Flowers
  • The Great Leap Forward
• The Changing Nature of Warfare (C3)
  • Unit overview
  • Warfare at the beginning of the 20th Century
  • Land warfare
  • Sea and aerial warfare
  • Atomic and nuclear weapons
  • Warfare at the end of the 20th Century
• Links

Laos and Cambodia

Laos and Cambodia were both part of the French Empire in Indo-China and were re-occupied by France after the Second World War. By 1953, it was clear that the French would be unable to retain control of the two countries and signed agreements guaranteeing complete independence. But, as in Vietnam, independence did not prove to be peaceful. In theory, Laos became a neutral country, but it was a neutral country  in name only, in practice there was a long struggle for power between three princes. This was made worse by intervention from abroad. Both China and North Vietnam sent aid to the Pathet Lao which was trying to establish a communist government.

In 1962, President Kennedy sent US forces to Thailand in an effort to support the Laotian army but real US involvement only took place from 1964 when reconnaissance flights proved that the North Vietnamese were using Laos as a way of bringing supplies to South Vietnam. This route became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The USA sent supplies to the government and also trained tribesmen to ambush communist forces on their way south.

In 1968 the Pathet Lao (now renamed the Lao People’s Liberation Army) launched a major attack and US forces were drawn into the conflict. At first, the USA only supplied air cover for the Laotian army but as North Vietnamese forces became involved, US and South Vietnamese ground troops were sent to Laos to try to destroy the communist advance. After the withdrawal of US forces from South Vietnam in 1973, a government of national unity was formed which included members of the Pathet Lao. Laos became a republic in 1977 and signed a treat of friendship with Vietnam in 1978.

After independence, Cambodia was dominated by Prince Sihanouk, who developed close links with China and North Vietnam. He tried to gain international agreement for a neutral zone in Indo-China but also accepted aid from China and the USSR. In 1969 he allowed North Vietnamese troops into Cambodia and this led to a US and South Vietnamese invasion in 1970. US forces were withdrawn in June 1970 and, although the USA continued to send military aid. A new government took power and the Khmer Republic was proclaimed in October. Prince Sihanouk was in Beijing at the time and was convicted of treason in his absence.

Sihanouk was determined to try to regain power and began to try to overthrow the government using guerrilla warfare. In 1975, the ‘Khmer Rouge’ occupied the capital, Pnom-Penh, and Sihanouk became head of state. The country was renamed Kampuchea. Sihanouk immediately began a reign of terror. Town-dwellers were forced into the countryside to work in agriculture and mass executions began. These became known as the ‘killing fields’. The killings became even worse when Prime Minister Pol Pot assumed power in 1977 and thousands of refugees fled to Thailand. In 1978, Vietnamese forces invaded Kampuchea and overthrew Pol Pot, who fled. Sihanouk went into exile in Beijing. Guerrillas continued to attack the new government until the mid-1980s when many were killed and their bases destroyed by Vietnamese forces.

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